Mean Girl
by Int0xicatedSarah
Summary: After Paulina and Sam get into a physical fight at school, their punishment involves them having to work together everyday after school for a month. Will they end up killing each other before then or will they finally set aside their differences? ((DISCONTINUED. Rewrite coming soon.))
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer/ Danny Phantom is not mine! I don't own it, sadly.**

 **Chapter 1**

Sam was officially sick of Paulina.

The sassy, shallow, and snobby Latina was even more impudent towards her for reasons that pointed nowhere other than jealousy. This was only evident because before Danny's secret was revealed and before he and Sam became a thing two years prior, she would more often than not pretend that she didn't exist, but afterwards, she started to pick at her every chance that she got.

She just ignored her for the most part, but she knew that her patience was running thin. Paulina made it a daily mission of hers to push or trip her in the hallway at school or steal her clothes during their shared gym class. The latter incident ceased once she stopped putting her clothes in her locker, but she was still highly irritated about having to move her belongings in the first place.

She was always a strong and tough individual, which is why she tried her best to not let the girl's foolish antics and desperate cries for attention get under her skin, but a person could only endure so much before something inside of them snapped. Still, she somehow managed to maintain her composure after each incident and walk away with her head held high.

Except that day.

She was having the roughest morning of her junior year. First, she overslept and was late to school because she forgot to set her alarm clock the night before, and because her parents and her grandmother were out that morning, nobody was around to wake her up. That, and she woke up with painful menstrual cramps.

Then, it started to rain on her way to school. She usually didn't mind rain, but having to rush to school in it and then having to enter the cold building of Casper High while dripping like a wet rat wasn't her favorite thing to do in the morning.

But Paulina harassing her as soon as she stepped into the building is what locked her in a bad mood. She was already feeling a bit insecure that day, so she wasn't in the mood to deal with the snickering, the insults, and the staring that she received from the Latina and her friends.

So, everything unfolded during Mr. Lancer's English class. He had been promoted to an upperclassmen Honors teacher during her sophomore year, which meant that she wasn't able to take his class until her current junior year. She shared the same class period with almost everyone from her Freshman year's class, save for Valerie, who had transferred schools during her sophomore year.

Mr. Lancer was standing near the front board of his classroom, explaining the assignment for the morning to his students. It was a group activity, which was something that Sam hated because she much preferred working solo. She should've liked working with Tucker and Danny, but Tucker was a bit of a pushover and Danny was always either distracted or asleep.

"After you and your group finish reading the passage, answer the six questions on the next page and turn it in on separate sheets of paper," Mr. Lancer instructed, casting a stern glance towards Dash. "Everybody must participate. One person is not allowed to do all of the work."

A few jocks groaned whilst a few nerds blew a short breath of relief. Sam paid them no attention and began doodling on the inside of her sketchbook, waiting for further instructions from Mr. Lancer. She was just in the middle of touching up on the Gothic Angel she had been working on when she felt something lightly hit her neck.

Curious, she glanced behind her, but Tucker and Danny were both oblivious and engaged in their own side conversation. She waited a few seconds to see if one of them would break character and start cracking up, but neither of them budged. Her eyes then panned around the room and towards the corner, where Paulina, Kwan, and Dash were snickering.

"Figures." She looked down and saw a small chunk of an eraser on the floor, which only made her roll her eyes and revert her attention to her drawing. She was certain that Paulina was the culprit because Dash and Kwan eased up on torturing her after Danny's secret was revealed. Sure, they were both still extremely childish, but Paulina definitely took the cake.

"Mr. Fenton, Mr. Foley, Miss Vidal, and Miss Chambers, you're all going to be partnered up for this assignment." Mr. Lancer took a seat at his desk and folded his arms across his chest. "Please, push your desks together. Silently, if you will."

"Score!" Tucker whispered to Danny, who merely smirked in response and stood up to move his desk. Tucker joined him, but not before casting a sympathetic glance towards Sam, who had turned around and furrowed her brows at him. "Don't feel left out, Sammy. This will all be over before you know it."

She offered him her signature eye roll as a response and spun back around in her seat. Mr. Lancer waited until the first group was settled down and working before he announced the second group. "Mr. Baxter, Miss Sanchez, Miss Snape, and Miss Manson. Second group."

Darn.

Sam clenched her eyelids shut and let a slow sigh trickle from her mouth. She wasn't in the mood to converse with anyone, especially not Paulina. Hopefully the girl would just keep to herself or address any other person in the group besides her, because she truly wasn't in the mood to bicker.

Seeing as how the other three members of her group were already seated together, she gathered her belongings and rose from her desk. Mr. Lancer didn't wait for her to switch seats, as he already started calling out the next group. She was just about to grab her backpack and cross the room when she felt something whack the side of her eye this time.

She didn't even have to look in Paulina's direction to know that she was the one who threw the eraser at her again. Her obnoxious snickering gave her away, but nonetheless, Sam pretended she was unbothered by the action and lifted up her backpack. Danny and Tucker seemed oblivious to what was happening, so she wasn't about to complain to them.

But as soon as she sat down at an empty desk and prepared to merge it with Dash's desk, Paulina flung another chunk of her eraser at her and started cracking up. Something about that titter struck a chord of anger within Sam, and as a result, she twisted her body towards Paulina to fully face her.

"What's the problem?" She spoke so calmly that she surprised herself. To anyone listening in, it would've just sounded like a regular conversation going on between them. Mr. Lancer was speaking over them, so nobody else was aware of the discussion besides Sam and her group.

Paulina flashed her a dark, burning glare in return and sized her up. "I don't know. You tell me. You're the one who came over here."

"Because unfortunately, we're partners for this assignment. I really hope all that hairspray you use didn't give you amnesia," Sam retorted. Paulina's mouth dropped and Dash snickered until she turned her powerful glare onto him.

"You have no right to talk to me like that, freak. Fenton saved the world. Not you." She then flicked her hair over her shoulder and sharpened her glare. "I don't owe you respect just because you're shacking up with him."

Sam puffed her lower lip out raised her shoulders slowly. "That's completely fine. Don't respect me, but don't disrespect me either. If you don't like me, leave me alone. You're always picking at me every chance that you get, which tells me you care about me enough to acknowledge me."

"Honey, I promise I don't care about you." Paulina's voice had risen a level, which captured some of her classmates attention. "Don't come over here and start something with me that you're not going to finish."

"I'm not starting anything with you. Just stop throwing eraser bits at me and I'll go back to ignoring you."

Paulina foolishly decided to challenge Sam by grabbing another pre-ripped chunk of her eraser and chucking it right in the center of her face. Her lips then slid into her signature devious smirk, which only further upset the girl in front of her. "What are you going to do about it, Goth?"

Sam could feel her heartbeat accelerating at that point as adrenaline surged through her body, but she shut her eyes and inhaled deeply to maintain her composure. "I'm not going to do anything, but you're going to stop."

"And what if I don't? You might be able to intimidate everyone else, but you definitely don't scare me." Paulina nonchalantly popped her gum and threw yet another eraser chunk at Sam, which officially pissed her off. She could feel her palms tingling, which surprised her because it was rare for her to get pissed off to the point where she wanted to strike someone.

Instead of swinging on the girl, which is what she truly wanted to do, she grabbed a handful of the eraser bits from the desk and sprinkled them on top of her head. That's when Paulina calmly, as to not cause too much of a scene, stood up from her seat and got right in her face.

Sam rolled her eyes and tilted her head to the left. "Look, I'm not trying to fight you, Paulina," she told the girl, "so just sit back down."

"I'm trying to fight you, though."

"Well, I'm not."

Paulina locked her wrists behind her back and roughly nudged Sam with her shoulder. "Well, I am." Sam stumbled back a bit, but rolled her eyes again and mumbled something under her breath. Paulina then brought her hands in front of her and harshly shoved Sam's shoulders. "I am."

And then it happened.

Sam lost her footing as a result of Paulina's push and nearly tumbled to the floor, but she managed to save herself by gripping onto Paulina's forearms. After she regained her balance, she just started swinging on her. All of her frustration from earlier mixed in with her irritation towards Paulina, which was all unleashed with each punch she threw.

Paulina blindly swung her fist outward and was only successful in hitting Sam twice before head-butting her towards the ground. She managed to climb on top of her for a hot second before Sam gained the upper ground and continued hammering her in her face.

"Ladies, break it up right now!"

Sure, Sam should've obeyed Mr. Lancer's frantic and stern order, but so much adrenaline was coursing through her veins that she just blocked him out. The distant, frantic cries and surprised gasps of her classmates were all obscured by the blood pounding in her ears.

She was just about to slam her fist into Paulina's face again when she felt a strong hand grasp hers and force it behind her back. Unbeknownst to them, security was called by Mr. Lancer before the fight broke out, and now there were two of them attempting to separate the girls.

Paulina had her arm curled around Sam's neck in a failed attempt at putting her in a headlock, so when one of the security guards tried to pull Sam up and away from her, he ended up accidentally dragging her along with them. She reached her hand upward and tangled her fingers in Sam's hair, tugging harshly on it as a last resort.

The second security guard swooped in and grabbed Paulina while screaming at them both to break it up. He noticed that the other security guard was trying to pry Paulina's fingers from Sam's hair, so he added, "Let go of her hair!" Thankfully, she obeyed and, finally, they were separated from each other.

"You're going to regret putting your hands on me, you stupid freaking— get off of me!" Paulina struggled against her security guard, who was still restraining her. She was thrashing around so violently that she was immediately hauled out of the classroom. The security guard holding onto Sam remained there for approximately thirty seconds before towing her out of the room as well.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: Thank you guys for reading and reviewing! I have to admit, the first chapter, I had the help of a Beta reader because my grammar is not that good. I now have her as a cowriter for a small part of this chapter, and most of you may know her because she's one of the good writers for the Phantom fandom on this site.** **I didnt want to take all of the credit! XD**

 **And to a reviewer, Guest, yes there will be different perspectives. Not too many though just with Sam and Paulina mainly. I wrote Danny's perspective in this chapter and my cowriter wrote the part with Sam and Paulina. If you all would rather just one perspective let me know C:**

* * *

 **Chapter 2**

"All right, all right!" Mr. Lancer returned to his desk shortly after the girls were removed from the room and raised his tone of voice at any students standing out of their seats. "Return to your seats and resume working, _now_!"

Danny was one of the students standing up as well. As soon as the fight broke out, he was the first one out of his seat. He would've intervened, but Mr. Lancer threatened suspension on anyone who didn't immediately back away from the pair. All he could do was stand to the side and helplessly watch the brawl escalate along with his classmates.

It wasn't like they were much help anyway. Majority of them were just cheering and egging on the fight while everyone else gasped and silently watched with wide eyes. He and Tucker almost jumped in to break them apart once they saw Paulina head butt Sam to the ground, but security rushed in at that point to separate them.

He couldn't help but wonder what exactly was said and done that pushed Sam to the point of violence. Paulina had been picking on her since they were Freshmen, so it couldn't be because of any insults thrown at her. All he knew was that Paulina got beat up in front of everyone, so she wasn't going to ease up on Sam anytime soon.

"Bro, Manson totally handled Paulina! That was the wildest shit I've ever seen."

"I know, man. Did you see the size of those knots she left on her forehead?"

As the two boys adjacent to Danny's group conversed about the fight, he couldn't help but mentally agree with them. He was able to catch a good look at both girls as they were torn apart and hauled out of the room, and it looked like Paulina received the more awful result of the fight because she had two swollen, painful-looking welts on her forehead.

Sam, on the other hand, only had a large scratch on her cheek. Her hair was disheveled from being yanked on, and Danny was positive that her head was throbbing from it. The more the fight replayed in his head, the more he could feel his anger and concern spiking. Sure, she handled herself pretty well, but he didn't like the idea of her getting into a fight with anyone.

Tucker shifted slightly in his seat before twisting to the side to face Danny. "Dude," he whispered, "I don't even have words for how shocked I am right now. I didn't think I'd ever see the day where Sam actually beat up Paulina."

Truthfully, Danny didn't think he'd ever see the day either. Sam was usually good at ignoring jabs from Paulina, so the fact that she just snapped that day and swung on her completely caught him off guard. He knew she had been having a bad morning, so something Paulina said or done to her probably flared her temper.

He crossed his arms and shrugged. "I knew that Lancer partnering them up together was going to prove to be a bad idea. Those two can't stand each other now more than ever." After grabbing his pencil and scribbling a circle in the corner of his paper, he shook his head and sighed. "That was bizarre. I can't help but be worried about her right now."

Tucker perched his cheek against his right palm and hummed softly to himself. "Well, I highly doubt she started the fight, so hopefully the worse she'll get is detention.

Meanwhile...

" _Suspended_?" With furrowed brows and a sharp tone of voice, Sam leaned forward in her seat and gaped at Principal Ishiyama. "Why am I the one getting suspended? She started it!"

Paulina scoffed and flicked her hair behind her shoulders. "Uh, hello? She's suspending me, too. I really hope all those Gothic voodoo products you use didn't give you amnesia, either."

Sam flattened her hand and shot it up beside her head. "Not talking to you."

"Well, you're talking around me, which is pretty much talking to me." Paulina rolled her eyes and leaned back in her seat. "I don't know about you, but I came here to talk to Principal Ishiyama, not to sit here and die of boredom from listening to you complain in that dreadfully monotonous tone of voice you always have."

"Monotonous... interesting vocabulary choice. Are you able to spell it, though? I know that's an awfully big word for you."

Principal Ishiyama exhaled slowly through her nose and stacked her hands on her desk. "Ladies, I don't have time for this, but yes, suspension for both parties will be necessary in this situation. Our school has a strict zero tolerance policy on fighting."

"But she started—"

"Regardless of who started it, Miss Manson, both of you threw a punch, so both of you will be held accountable for your actions." Sam's shoulders wilted in defeat and Paulina groaned. Principal Ishiyama rose from her chair and brought her hands behind her back. "I don't think three days of suspension will be too harmful."

" _Three days?"_

"I can't do three days!" Paulina's brows pulled together as she leaned in closer to the desk. "I have boys— I mean, I have people I need to see and things I need to do!"

"Do those things involve you standing up or being on your knees?" Sam muttered, and in response, Paulina crossed her arms and sharpened her glare. Principal Ishiyama mumbled something underneath her breath before walking to the left.

"In addition to suspension, I have a little task for you ladies to do." She stopped in her tracks and peered out the small window of her office door. "As an apology to Mr. Lancer for today's incident, I want you girls to write one thing that you like about each other each day and read it out loud before your class for a week."

Paulina snorted in response. "I don't know how you expect me to read a blank paper out loud."

"For once, I agree with it," Sam retorted, jerking her head towards Paulina for referencing purposes. Paulina sucked her teeth, which was disregarded as Sam continued. "If I'm already doing three days of suspension, then there's no way I'm doing that. Sitting here beside her is punishment enough."

"Yes, you're doing it, and on top of that," Principal Ishiyama returned to her initial spot at her desk and lowered herself into her seat. "I'm signing you both up for our school's character education club. I could always transfer you two to an alternative school or even expel you for such behavior. Trust me. This is considered a good-spirited favor."

Sam pursed her lips and tried to think of a decent response, but Paulina beat her to the punch. "Why? What's the point of this?"

"Suspending you is just a slap on the wrist. This experience seems like a much wiser approach to ensure that something like this never happens again, and plus, it'll teach you both how to better respect each other and everyone around you."

"Is this an after school activity? If so, I can't do it. I have cheerleading practice everyday after school."

Principal Ishiyama shrugged her shoulders and curled her hair behind her ear. "Should've thought about that before getting into a fight. Now, the program is only a month in length and the group meets after school on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays until about five o'clock."

Sam raised a hand to her forehead and massaged her temples. "With all due respect, Principal Ishiyama, don't you think this is a little too much? You know, especially for a first offense on my end?"

"Hey!" exclaimed Paulina, swinging her glare towards Sam. "Believe it or not, this is my first offense, too."

"I'll choose the "or not" part of that sentence."

Principal Ishiyama sliced her hand through the air and raised her voice. "Enough!" Both girls immediately clamped their lips shut and looked to their principal with wide eyes. The women pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed heavily. "This is not up for debate. If you agree to go through with the program, I'll knock off a day from your suspension."

Sam and Paulina glanced at each other again, seemingly coming to a silent and mutual agreement before grumbling the word, "Fine."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

Sam jolted awake to the sound of something in her bathroom tumbling to the floor. She wanted to get up and go investigate, but the same pounding headache that made her fall asleep in the first place quickly returned. With a groan, she dropped her head back onto her pillow and let her eyelids droop.

"Sam?" That was Danny's voice, but why he was even at her house was beyond her. She cracked her eyelids open partially and hummed loudly to let him know that she was, in fact, awake now. He exited the bathroom a few seconds later, carrying a first-aid kit and a bottle of soap.

There were still a few remnants of sleep that left her feeling disoriented and muzzy, but she still managed to groggily ask him, "Which ghost was it this time and how severe are the wounds?"

He paused for a second before rolling his eyes and smiling gently at her. "This isn't for me this time." He crossed the room and took a seat beside her on the bed, towering over her as she rolled over and lifted a brow at him. "Where are your parents?"

"Beats me." Her parents scolded her earlier that evening for fighting and being suspended, as they didn't buy her self-defense excuse at all. She wasn't in the mood to put up with their yelling because the intense volume of their voices worsened her headache, so she went up to her room and locked her door.

If they weren't in the house at the moment, then she had no idea where they went. They stopped informing her of where they were heading out to after she turned sixteen. However, she did know, or guess, that her grandmother was somewhere downstairs either asleep or reading one of her favorite books.

She closed her eyes again and was ready to fall back asleep, but then she felt a burning sensation on her cheek. As a result, she moaned and clenched her eyelids much more tightly. "Sorry," she heard Danny say, "I forgot to warn you first."

"It's okay. I kind of like it." She kept her eyes closed and let him continue to tend to the scratch on her cheek. "My head hurts, though." Her headache greatly resembled a dull-pounding of a hammer against her skull... repeatedly, which left her wondering how she easily fell asleep to begin with.

"My head would hurt too if somebody I fought pulled my hair that hard." She heard the peeling of a wrapper before feeling a band-aid being pressed gently against her cheek. There was a moment of silence before Danny added, "Especially if I threw my hair into a tight bun later on."

It took her several seconds to realize that he was referring to her hair being in a bun. Her lips then curved upward into a lazy smile when she felt him tugging on her hair tie. She usually didn't like being coddled or babied, but because she was in pain, she didn't mind seeing the compassionate side of him.

"At what point did you come over? Were my parents around whenever you got here?" she asked him, and in response, he shook his head.

"I'm guessing they left a few minutes before I got here. I didn't really hear or see them." With her bun now gone, he absently slid his fingernails through her hair and looked down at her. "I stopped by to check on you, but when I phased in here, you were asleep. That was some fight, Sam. What happened?"

She finally opened her eyes again, this time keeping them open, and lifted her shoulder in a half-shrug. "I was having a bad morning and just snapped, I guess." She slightly turned her head to the side and looked up at him while he retracted his hand. "I told her I didn't want to fight, but she kept provoking me."

"Provoking you how?"

"Well, she kept shoving me and getting all up in my personal space. It was either let her beat me up or fight back, so I chose the latter." Truthfully, she didn't feel bad for fighting Paulina. She was only dreading the result of it, which was suspension and having to attend a program with her. "Principal Ishiyama wants us to pick one thing we like about each other everyday and read it out loud during Lancer's class."

Danny dragged his fingers through her hair again and snickered a bit. "That sounds like... torture. I'm sorry." She thinned her lips and nodded as he raised his shoulders. "How long did you get suspended for?"

"Three days. Well, now it's two because I agreed to join some stupid character education club with Paulina at school."

"Let me know how that works out." He leaned down and kissed her forehead before returning to his upright position and smiling at her. "I was going to ask if you wanted to head over to the Nasty Burger with me and Tuck, but I can see that you're not feeling well."

She glanced over at the digital clock on her nightstand and stared at it for a few seconds before slowly working her way into a sitting position. "No, I'll go with you guys. I'll just have to pop some Tylenol or something before we leave."

* * *

Paulina grimaced as she watched Dash gobble down a bacon cheeseburger from his combo meal at the Nasty Burger. Beside him was Kwan, who was mirroring his actions with a regular hamburger. To her right was Star, who was blankly staring at both of them as though she were used to them eating like that.

"I'm going to have to sweet talk Principal Ishiyama into letting me drop out of that stupid character education club. If I don't, I'm pretty much done as a cheerleader." When neither Dash or Kwan acknowledged her, she snapped her fingers and cleared her throat. "Uh, hello? I'm speaking, you morons."

While Kwan cast a sympathetic look her way, Dash rolled his eyes at her and swallowed his food. "You said that club meets three days a week, right? Well, just move cheerleading practice to the remaining two days, or add Saturdays and Sundays to the schedule."

Star puffed out her bottom lip and stirred her soda around with her straw. "That's not such a bad idea. It could only be a temporary change until the club is done. You said it's only a month long, right?" With a sigh, Paulina nodded. "Then there you go. You won't have to give up your head cheerleader position that way."

"And you're only suspended for two days. I doubt you'll miss that much work," Kwan chimed in after he finished up his hamburger. Star pursed her lips and hummed, which quickly caught Paulina's attention.

"You'd be surprised how much work one can miss in even a day's absence from school." A death glare sent towards her by Paulina was enough to make her hastily backpedal. "I mean, I'm just guessing. I could be wrong."

Dash popped a fry into his mouth and snorted. "I'm surprised you're even worried about that. If I were you, I'd be more worried about my reputation." He chewed the fry for a bit and then swallowed it before cracking a slight smirk. "I mean, Fenton's cool and all, but Manson's still considered a nerd, and the fact that you got beat up by her makes you look—"

"I did not get beat up by that freak!" After realizing that she had accidentally shouted out the sentence, a sheepish expression crossed her face as she lowered her voice. "She just caught me off-guard. That's all. What, did you guys hear rumors about the fight going around or something?"

Nobody said anything; Star sipped her drink, Dash continued eating his fries, and Kwan looked at the surface of the table. It wasn't until Paulina snapped her fingers again that Star responded with, "Yeah, everybody's talking about it."

"Everybody?" Paulina repeated. Each of them nodded, and that's when her gaze fell to the table as well. She heard Star click her tongue and, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Dash shrug. After a moment of silence, she scoffed and looked up at them. "If anything, that fight was a tie. She mostly threw cheap shots, and if anybody thinks otherwise, I can just prove them wrong."

The corners of Star's lips rose into a pleasant smile. "Exactly."

"Then now's your chance," Kwan replied, motioning towards the entrance of the restaurant. Everybody at the table looked over just as Danny, Sam, and Tucker stepped inside. They conversed for roughly thirty seconds before parting ways, with Sam and Danny heading over to a table and Tucker making his way over to the counter to place an order.

"Piece of cake." Paulina grabbed her untouched bottle of water from the table and twisted the cap horizontally to open it. "Watch." She then rose up from her seat and marched over to Sam's table, smirking once Star got up to join her.

She couldn't help but feel a great deal of anger and envy surge through her as she drew closer to the table. She wished that Danny wanted her instead of Sam, but for whatever strange reason, he didn't anymore. Everybody wanted her; she was Paulina freaking Sanchez, the prettiest girl in all of Casper High, and who was Sam? Nobody but the weird Goth girl.

But he liked that weird Goth girl.

"Uh, hey, Paulina." The sudden sound of his voice dragged her back into reality. She hadn't even realized that she was now standing at the table, staring blankly ahead of her. She acknowledged him with her award-winning grin before flicking her hair behind her shoulder.

"Hi, Danny. What are you doing here?" She was aware that it was a stupid question, but she was really hoping Sam would intervene so that she had an actual reason to start a fight with her. Unfortunately, she wasn't taking the bait just yet, so she decided to spice it up. "Mind coming with me for a second?"

She heard Sam scoff and mutter, "I wonder how many different guys she's said that to in total." She didn't know if Danny heard the comment or not because he didn't acknowledge it, but either way, it pissed her off enough to want to start a fight. Without thinking twice, she removed the cap from her bottled drink and poured some of the water right on top of Sam's head.

Sam's reaction was swift; she slapped the water bottle right out of Paulina's hand and sprang up from her seat, getting right in her face. Danny wasn't having another fight break out in front of him, so he swiftly slid in-between them. "Whoa, whoa. Please don't fight each other again."

"No, Danny. Let her hit me," Paulina said calmly. She wanted Sam to hit her first so that anything she did after that could be deemed self-defense, but unfortunately for her, Danny moved his arm around Sam's waist and towed her towards the exit. Before they left, he signaled to Tucker that it was time for them to go.

Star's right eyebrow arched and she started to turn over her shoulder. "Well, so much for that. Come on, Paulina."

Paulina stared at Danny's retreating form for a second or two before spinning around and trailing after Star as she walked back over to their table.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

"This is getting ridiculous. It's like every time she sees me, she wants to pick a fight." Sam ran her fingers through her hair, which was still pretty damp from the water bottle incident earlier. "She's triggering me, which is confusing and annoying because I don't get triggered."

Tucker brought his forefinger to his lip and hummed softly. "Perhaps she pulled that stunt so she could redeem herself in a rematch. Gossip spreads like a wildfire around Casper High, and word has it that you won that fight."

Sam's forehead creased as she frowned. "What did I win, exactly? Oh, that's right. Suspension, a tortuous class assignment, an after school club, a headache, and more Paulina-time than I wanted. Trust me, this whole situation isn't a win for either of us."

Danny, who had been sitting quietly in the corner of his room on his laptop, peeked up at the pair with his brows curled together. "I'm not entirely sure how her provoking you like that was going to redeem her reputation."

"When I saw you slap that water bottle from her hand and jump up like that, I for sure thought it was on and popping again," Tucker told Sam, who rolled her eyes and shook her head. "I was torn between rushing over to stop the fight or continuing to order our food, but luckily for me, Danny was there, so."

Danny crinkled his nose and let his gaze fall to the monitor of his laptop once again. "All I know is that I really don't want you getting physical again."

"Don't worry. That's not going to happen," Sam vowed, and she was true to her word. After two days crawled by, she was finally able to go back to school. She was looking forward to having a good day there until she remembered the little assignment that Principal Ishiyama gave to her and Paulina.

She was hoping the woman forgot about it, but sure enough, she was standing front and center in Mr. Lancer's classroom when she arrived. They made brief eye contact before Sam broke it by glancing over at Paulina, who looked just as irritated as she did. Without uttering a word, she made a beeline for her seat just as the bell rang.

"Good morning, students." Principal Ishiyama straightened herself up and panned her eyes around the classroom. Sam lowered her head onto her folded hands and groaned, which made Danny reach his hand out to sympathetically pat her back. "Today, we have two students who would like to demonstrate an act of kindness. Paulina and Samantha, please join me."

Reluctantly, both girls stood up from their seats and trudged towards the front of the classroom. Mr. Lancer crossed his arms and smirked. "Well, ladies? Which one of you wants to volunteer first?" Neither of them responded, so he jerked his head towards Paulina. "Miss Sanchez, why don't you start?"

"Because first is the worst," she replied. Sam rolled her eyes and shifted her weight onto her right foot.

"Well, first sure did kick second's ass." She only said it low enough for Paulina to hear, which is why both Principal Ishiyama and Mr. Lancer were confused when Paulina growled. Sam stepped forward and cleared her throat, ready to go, but Paulina moved in front of her and smiled broadly.

"One thing I like about Manson is her bravery." She dramatically gestured at Sam, who only raised an eyebrow inquisitively. "It takes a lot of courage to step into this school wearing those awful combat boots everyday, but she's somehow able to overlook the fact that it makes her look like a complete loser."

"And one thing I like about Paulina is her confidence." Sam stepped in front of the cheerleader and clasped her hands together. "If I had the chance to parade around the school with my face all caked up with a foundation shade that doesn't match my neck, I probably wouldn't, but she does that very well. Confidence is the key."

Principal Ishiyama inclined her head and brought her hand over her eyes as Mr. Lancer rolled his eyes and told the girls that they could head back to their seats. After sharing a powerful glare, they both huffed and walked back over to their seats.

The rest of the day went by pleasantly for Sam. She passed her Algebra II quiz, ate her favorite salad at lunch, and then she had a smooth period during her Physics class, with her teacher only making them watch a video instead of doing any class work. Unfortunately, her good day came to a halt when the last bell of the day rang, meaning that she couldn't go straight home.

No; she had to attend that stupid character education club.

It was Thursday, which meant that the program wasn't supposed to be in session that day, but something happened with the schedule and, as a result, Friday's session was moved to Thursday instead. She wasn't even sure where the participants of that program met up after school, so she just followed a random guy that was wearing the club's official t-shirt.

He navigated his way through the packed hallway and entered the cafeteria, where he then made a beeline for a lunch table near the corner. Present there were about several other students, with majority of them wearing the same t-shirt that the guy was wearing. She exhaled sharply, guessing that she was right where she was supposed to be.

After waiting around for roughly ten minutes, a tall female teacher approached the group with a smile so radiant that Sam inwardly gagged. "Good afternoon, folks!" the woman chirped. Everyone returned her chipper greeting except for Sam, who just tipped her head back and mouthed her displeasure. "Now that we're all here, please grab your belongings and follow me to the classroom that we'll be using for today."

As the group gathered around by the door and prepared to exit, Paulina came rushing over. "Wait! I'm here." Everyone looked over at her and some of them smiled. She merely disregarded them as she stopped in her tracks before the teacher, flashing her a beautiful toothy grin. "I'm Paulina. Principal Ishiyama signed me up for this club."

"Hi, Paulina. I'm Ms. Castillo, the owner of this club. Come along, dear." The woman spun over her shoulder and started towards the door. "Time to get this party started!" Paulina, retaining her grin, trailed after her along with everyone else. Sam lingered behind the group, suppressing the urge to punch the wall with agitation.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

Paulina found the character education club to be a bit tedious, to say the least.

She was used to spending her after school time with her friends, whether it was catching up with Dash and Star or being goofy with the other girls at cheer practice. She honestly thought that doing anything else would be better than what she was currently doing, which was listening to Ms. Castillo drone on about the topic of the day, which was apparently bullying.

"Depression and social anxiety is often a direct result of bullying." The woman's eyes flickered to the classroom clock for a second before she began to slowly pace to her left. "Picking on someone because of their appearance is the most common sign of bullying. If a person can't change something about the way they look in ten seconds, don't you ever point it out to them."

Paulina crossed her arms and glanced over at Sam, eyeing her as she slid her hand through her hair and shifted the direction that her side part fell in. She actually thought that Sam was a pretty girl and would be even prettier if she wore lighter colors and different clothing, but there was no way she was ever going to voice that opinion.

Sure, she did pick on her often for her appearance, but she thought that she mostly pointed out things that could be fixed. Probably not in ten seconds, but definitely in a day, whereas Sam constantly pointed out the fact that she was only flawless when she wore pounds of makeup. At first, she just dismissed it as jealousy, but those snippy little remarks slowly started to get to her.

"Appearance isn't always just facial-wise. Teasing someone for the way they dress is also a form of bullying. Attacking someone by hitting them or yelling at them is another form, both physical and verbal." Ms. Castillo stopped pacing and raised her brows, facing her group of students. "I want you each to tell me the meanest thing someone has said about you."

A few hands shot up, but she skipped over all of them and pointed at Paulina, who perked up a bit. "Take a crack at it, Paulina."

The cheerleader clasped her hands together for a second and drew a deep breath. "I got my nails done for my birthday one day and it was the first time I got gel over a regular manicure. I thought my nails were so cute, but then my best friend told me that the one on my thumb looked more uneven than the rest."

Nobody responded, but almost everyone chuckled quietly amongst themselves. Paulina frowned in return, but Sam shook her head and rolled her eyes. "She said state the meanest thing that was said about you, not tell us your top nail horror story."

Paulina twisted her mouth into a scowl and glared at her. "Then why don't you go next?"

"Interesting idea." Ms. Castillo seemed eager as she nodded her head at Sam, whose eyebrows bounced once the woman motioned towards her. "Samantha, is it?"

"Sam."

" _Sam_ ," the woman corrected politely. "Why don't you share the meanest thing that someone has ever said about you?"

Sam's shoulders rose and fell nonchalantly. "I mean, I don't really care about what people have to say about me."

Ms. Castillo smiled, though it looked a bit forced to Paulina. "That can't be true." She rolled her head to the left and clicked her tongue. "I was informed by Principal Ishiyama that you and Paulina were both involved in a physical altercation on Monday. Something had to have been said that upset you enough to become physical with her."

"Nothing was said, but plenty was done. She kept throwing eraser chunks at me and when I asked her to stop, she got in my face and provoked a fight by continuously pushing me." Sam extended her forefinger towards Paulina and furrowed her brows. "This girl has been picking on me nonstop since we were Freshmen."

A young girl who looked no older than sixteen raised her hand a bit. "Then surely she's said something mean about you that really stuck with you. I know you have your walls up and you're tough both inside and out, but you're still human, and humans feel emotions."

Paulina's gaze traveled towards Sam, who had looked over at her as well. Instead of swiftly breaking eye contact, both girls just stared at each other for several seconds before Sam looked away. "I'm fairly certain that she's said a lot of mean things to some of you in here as well, and I'm starting to think it's because she's insecure about herself."

And immediately, Paulina was on the defensive. "I have never once said anything about anyone in here but you, and for the record, I'm pretty damn happy with myself. I'm a queen and there's nothing wrong with being confident because at the end of the day, I'll always have myself."

"You can label yourself a queen all you want, but you've stepped on so many girls to get to where you are now that they've become the throne that you sit on." Sam leaned upright in her seat and sharpened her tone. "If you constantly have to tear down the next person to feel better about yourself, then maybe you're picking the wrong confidence to stand on."

"Oh, and you're innocent?" Paulina twisted her lower body to the side so that she was now fully facing Sam and then she narrowed her eyes into slits. "You prance around here thinking you're superior and that you're on top of everybody just because you're Danny Phantom's girlfriend."

Sam flinched and snapped her fingers. "I don't do that! I've never done that." Paulina swallowed hard and waved off her reply. "I don't think I'm better than anybody else, but the way you act makes it quite clear that you think you're on top of everyone. Paulina, you're not better than me and I'm not better than you, but you're so spoiled that you can't even be humble for a second."

Ms. Castillo finally decided to intervene after silently observing the two of them go back and forth with each other. "Okay, ladies, that's enough." She inhaled and exhaled sharply before standing up straight. "We're all going to play a little game of Simon Says, but this one is a little different. Can everyone please stand up and form a circle for me?"

Paulina's eyes slid up to the clock, which read four-twenty. She sighed in relief; only forty minutes left until she was able to go home. She rose from her seat and moved into the circle her group was already forming, glaring at a girl who had accidentally bumped into her.

The same young girl who addressed Sam earlier stood in the center of the circle with a bright smile playing on her lips. She was probably the club's assistant, which would explain why she was trying to tap into the Goth earlier. "Everyone who likes cats, clap your hands twice," she instructed.

Paulina loved cats, so of course she clapped her hands twice. She was surprised, however, when she saw Sam roll her eyes and clap her hands as well. She didn't exactly strike her as a dog person, but she didn't think the girl was a cat person either. In her opinion, she seemed more like a parrot person.

"Everyone who likes music, put your right hand on your head," the girl continued. She, too, put her right hand on top of her head and smiled when everyone in the room mirrored her action. "If you play a sport, put your left hand on top of your head."

Paulina considered cheerleading a sport. Hell, it was definitely more than a workout to her, so she put her left hand on top of her head. Sam also placed her left hand on top of her head, which left Paulina wondering what sport she could've possibly played. She thought that things like track or soccer were more in her range.

After a few more minutes of directions and laughter, the game ended, and the young girl walked right up to Paulina and smiled almost sadly. "It's not all about a person's appearance, you know," she said quietly as everyone else started conversing with each other. "The person you pick on could have more in common with you than your own friends."

As the girl walked away, Paulina raised her right hand to her chin and blankly stared after her. She didn't understand what that meant at first until she realized that she and Sam had almost all the same answers throughout the entire game.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

A couple days passed by with nothing really happening between Paulina and Sam. They ignored each other's existence for the most part, except when they had to compliment each other every morning during Mr. Lancer's class. They managed to stop hurling insults at one another and really started to find things that they genuinely liked about the other, whether it sounded bitter or not.

It was now Wednesday, which meant that the character education club was meeting after school. At first, Sam would've groaned and found an excuse not to go, but truthfully, she liked going there now. It wasn't as boring as she thought it would be, but that was because the topics were things that she could relate to in a way.

She was now in gym class, and because Paulina eased up on torturing her, she was finally able to put her belongings back into her gym locker. Well, at least she thought she was, because after P.E. ended, her regular clothes weren't in there when she checked. She had a sneaking suspicion that Paulina was the culprit, but when she whirled around to go confront her, someone else was standing there.

"Looking for something, Manson?" One of Paulina's friends, a callous brunette named Tiffany, was standing behind her with her arms crossed. She spun around and caught the girl's eye, but once she saw Star, Paulina, and another girl standing a little behind her, her expression darkened.

"Where are my clothes, Tiffany?" She wasn't in the mood to deal with Tiffany, as she picked on her often in gym class. Paulina usually joined in with her, but for some reason, she was silent and only observing them this time. When Sam glanced at her, her eyes darted elsewhere, as though she wanted nothing to do with what was happening.

"Babygirl, when you can't find something, the most common thing to do is look for it." Star and the other girl snickered as Tiffany stepped to the side and jerked her head in the opposite direction. "In your case, I think the showers would be a really great place to check first."

Sam froze up for a second before her eyes drifted past Tiffany's shoulder and over towards the shower area. "You didn't." She brushed past the girls and rushed over to the showers, rounding the corner and scanning her eyes over the area. Sure enough, her clothes were soaking wet and scattered across the floor. "You have got to be kidding me."

"Nope, I'm not kidding." At the sound of Tiffany's voice, Sam pivoted around to face her. As soon as she did that, the one random girl in the group doused her with the water from her water bottle. She did nothing but stand there and take it, being much too stunned to properly react.

Tiffany, flashing her usual sadistic smirk, cocked her head to the side. "Paulina told us that you called her a bully. Name calling is also a part of bullying, so what does that make you? You're no better than us, and hopefully wearing wet clothes around school will humble you a bit. Right, Paulina?"

Her gaze shifted to Paulina for her reaction, but unfortunately, the Latina nervously chuckled and nodded her head. Sam didn't know why, but at that moment, she felt betrayed. Paulina definitely owed her no loyalty, but the fact that she thought they had somewhat of a mutual understanding prior to that made her blood boil.

After snatching up her soaked clothing from the floor of the shower area and squeezing it out, she swept out of the locker room like a ferocious hurricane. The bell rang a few seconds before she departed, so now she was rushing to the school's new laundromat room so that she could dry her clothes and get to lunch.

"Sam!" That was Danny's voice, no doubt being happy to see her. She stopped walking for a second and glanced over at him, and instantly, his cheerful expression melted and was replaced by concern. "Whoa, what happened?"

She was certain that her face was redder than a tomato, much to her chagrin, so she turned away from him and continued stalking down the hallway. He was relentless, however, and quickly trailed behind her. Unfortunately, Paulina had been jogging after her as well, desperately trying to catch up to her.

"Wait, wait." She pushed past Danny and caught onto Sam's wrist, which was enough to make her growl and yank her hand out of reach as she whipped around. Paulina moved her hand back to her side and sighed heavily. "Look, what happened back there was not my fault. I—"

Sam spread her fingers apart and stuck them right in Paulina's face. "I don't even want to hear it." She was certain that the amount of animosity and curtness in her voice was enough to make the girl's blood run cold, but she didn't care at that moment because she was livid. "I never directly called you a bully, but you know what? You are. You don't care about anyone's feelings but your own."

Paulina stepped up to her and jammed her forefinger right in her face. "You don't know me, okay? You don't know anything about me." Sam chuckled darkly upon hearing that and narrowed her eyes.

"I know that you're a vain, shallow, and mean-spirited person, especially to anyone you think is below your standards." She could feel moisture gathering in her eyes, but she absolutely refused to let a single tear slip out. With a quick glance over at Danny, she shook her head and took a step back from Paulina. "I may not know much about you, but I know that for sure."

And back down the hallway she marched, not daring to look behind her to see if either of them were following her. She blinked a few times to rid her eyes of the tears of anger that had welled up. She needed alone time, and being around Paulina right now wasn't going to help calm her down.

She swallowed the lump that swelled in her throat as she arrived to her destination. Luckily for her, the room was unoccupied, so she slipped inside and shut the door before locking it. She worked quickly, sticking her wet clothes in the dryer and tossing in a dryer sheet. She then adjusted the settings before starting up the machine.

She decided against drying her gym shirt because it was surprisingly not that wet compared to her hair. Using an elastic hair tie, she pulled her hair into a sloppy bun and wiped her damp hands on her gym shorts. She then lowered herself onto the floor and pressed her back against the wall before staring blankly at the dryer.

Several minutes later, Danny phased into the room with Tucker. Sam only knew that because she heard approaching footsteps, and there was no way anyone else could've gotten inside because she had the door locked. All was silent until both boys took a seat on either side of her and just stared at the dryer.

"You do know that Tuck and I weren't going to just leave you in here by yourself, right?" Danny asked. Sam raised an eyebrow and frowned at him.

"I was going to meet you guys in the cafeteria after I dried my clothes." She moved her hands into her lap and exhaled. "Figured I'd soak up some alone time. I needed to calm my nerves before I got into another fight."

Tucker pressed his lips together and blinked a few times. "Yeah, we overheard some people talking about what happened in the locker room. Man, some girls can be so evil sometimes."

Sam snorted. "You don't know the half of it."

"It's weird how Dash eased up on me and Paulina started going harder on you." Danny rose from his position on the floor and slowly started pacing back and forth. Sam's eyes followed his movement and Tucker whipped out his PDA. "You don't think she's jealous, do you?"

"Of me? I highly doubt that." She was fairly certain that Paulina wasn't jealous of her looks, her clothing, or anything pertaining to her appearance. She more than likely envied her relationship with Danny, but she wasn't about to tell him that, though any fool could see it. "She thinks I called her a bully yesterday during our character education session."

Tucker's brows curled together. "Isn't she one, though?"

"I don't know. I've never considered her one. I just thought she was shallow."

"You called her a bully today, though." Danny sucked in a heavy breath of air and stopped pacing. He then knelt down beside Sam and frowned at her. "I saw those tears in your eyes back there, Sam. It takes a lot to make you cry, and barely even then."

"Those were just tears of anger. I don't think you realize how badly I wanted to fight those girls back in the locker room." She knew better than to attack one girl because the others would just jump on her. The fact that she wanted to react a certain way but couldn't is what made her frustration build up and snap. "They soaked my clothes and threw water on me because Paulina told them I called her a bully."

"What is this, elementary school?" Danny muttered. "I'm glad you ended up not fighting. That would've ended badly for them."

Sam's lips parted and a chuckle slipped out. "Please. I can take down one of them, but definitely not all four of them. I bet their menstrual cycles are linked up, too."

Danny and Tucker exchanged a brief grimace before Tucker inquired, "Well, what are you going to do about Paulina?"

Sam scowled down at her now folded hands and lifted her shoulders before letting them wilt. "Nothing. I stay out of her way, but somehow, she still finds a way to communicate with me. I'm just glad tomorrow's the last day that we have to acknowledge each other because our week of compliments is up after Lancer's."

"You can't reason with a bully," Danny replied. "Unless you have superpowers, apparently. You know, courtesy of Dash."

Sam hummed softly and shook her head. "I don't think I actually want to label her as a bully. Bullies pick on people who they find weak and vulnerable. I've never shown her fear, but yet she keeps picking at me, so she's no bully. There's something deeper to her motives."

Tucker raised a brow. "And what do you suppose her motives are?"

"I don't know," she responded, "but I'm going to find out."


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

After lunch wrapped up for the day, Paulina started walking to her Economics class alongside Star, whose class was adjacent to hers. Surprisingly, she had no friends in that class, unless she counted Danny, who usually avoided her out of respect for Sam.

"You know, I kind of feel bad about what happened with the Goth back in the locker room." She curled her fingers around the strap of her backpack and stopped in front of her classroom door. "I never thought I'd say this, but she didn't deserve all of that."

Star stopped walking as well and leaned sideways against the wall beside her. "Don't tell me you're getting soft on us, Paulina. You shouldn't feel bad for her. She humiliated you in front of the whole class and had rumors being spread around about you. If she doesn't feel bad about doing that, then you shouldn't feel bad about one minor thing that was done to her in return."

Paulina hummed and pulled her brows together thoughtfully. "I suppose you're right."

"I know I am." Star swept her hair behind her shoulders and leaned up from the wall. "Manson had no right calling you a bully when she makes fun of you, too. She's a hypocrite. Remember when she gave that whole speech during sophomore year about how important individuality is, but she was the same person who changed the lunch menu in freshman year to fit her meal preference?"

Paulina rolled her eyes. "Ugh. I'll never forget that day." The whole school was pissed, but Sam was adamant that they all switched to her ultra-recyclo-vegetarian diet. "I guess I see your point."

"Yeah. Well, I have to get inside before someone tries to take my seat again." Star walked forward and waved goodbye to Paulina, who waved back at her and started towards her own classroom.

When she stepped inside, she saw that her teacher was writing something on the board. Assuming that it was just the assignment for the day, she wandered over to her seat. The second bell hadn't rang yet, so a few students in the class were socializing with each other. Danny sat at his desk with his face buried in his folded arms, most likely falling asleep.

She should've left him alone the way she usually did, but something told her to go talk to him. She walked over to the empty desk beside him and took a seat before reaching over and tapping him on the shoulder. "Danny?"

He hastily jerked up his head and sat upright, startling her and making her jump a bit. "I wasn't sleeping." He glanced around the room for a few seconds before resting his gaze on Paulina. Her lips curled into a sheepish smile and her hand raised as she waved. "Oh, it's just you. Why are you—"

"You don't think I'm a bully, do you?" The question just slipped out, but she didn't regret asking it, not even when Danny's lackluster eyes widened with an emotion she couldn't detect. "It's okay, you can be honest with me. Do you consider me a bully?"

He was silent for several seconds before slamming his eyelids shut and exhaling sharply. "I mean, you're not really the nicest person, especially to Sam." Paulina tilted her head to the left and rolled her eyes to the right. "I guess that's expected, seeing as how you both were never fond of each other to begin with."

"Touching." Her brows then dipped together into a scowl. "But that doesn't answer my question."

"Well..." She watched him shuffle his hand through his hair and tentatively raise his shoulders. "Why are you asking me? My opinion doesn't matter. What you think of yourself matters the most."

"I don't want to be a bully," she answered. The bell rang at that moment, so Danny didn't respond to her, but she disregarded the bell and continued speaking to him. "Your Goth friend seems to think I'm one, though, which is why I'm asking you if you agree with her."

His brows slanted and his mouth twisted to the side, creating a crease in his cheek. "Her name is Sam and she's my girlfriend. You never really seem to acknowledge our relationship or even just her as a person. You're not a complete bully, but you can be a little disrespectful sometimes."

"Oh, really? How?"

"Well, you've insulted me, Sam, and Tucker countless times up until you found out I was Danny Phantom. You also pretty much used us to get 'Phantom' to come to your birthday party. Before Valerie transferred, you and the rest of the A-listers shunned her from your group because of her rough living conditions. I'm glad you've accepted me as Danny Phantom, but you would've never accepted me as Danny Fenton if I didn't reveal my secret."

Paulina leaned back and blinked a few times as the feeling of offense struck her. "That's not true." She downcast her eyes to the surface of her desk and slightly parted her lips. "Is it?"

"It is. Regardless of all that, I was still able to forgive you because I know nobody's perfect. The way you act towards Sam is exactly how Dash acted towards me. The only difference between me and him versus you and Sam is that he stopped picking on me."

"Yeah, because he can't take on Danny Phantom."

"And you can't take on Sam, so why do you keep picking on her?"

That shut her up completely. Danny's eyes lingered on her for about three seconds before he turned away from her. She tightly pressed her lips together and shifted her focus onto the front board, where her teacher was jotting down something from a textbook he was holding onto.

For the rest of the period, she mentally reflected on her conversation with Danny. The more she did that, the more she felt guilty. She knew she should've jumped in to stop Tiffany and her friend from doing Sam like that, but for some reason, she couldn't. She merely sat back and watched, and while she didn't know much about being a bully, she knew that she was no better by standing back and doing nothing to stop it.

So, after school, she caught up with Sam in the cafeteria as she waited for the other members of the club to get there. She was sitting at the table with her usual deadpan expression clouding her face, surveying her surroundings. As soon as Paulina approached her, however, her deadpan expression shifted to a glare.

"Wait, before you yell at me or anything, I actually came here to... you know." She almost choked on her words because she hated apologizing. It made her feel vulnerable and wrong, and she felt like she was usually always right. "A-Apologize. You know, for what happened in the locker room."

Sam's right eyebrow rose and she steepled her fingers over her stomach as she slowly leaned back, now intrigued. "Okay?"

Paulina hesitated for a minute, somehow trying to come up with a way to spit out a decent apology. She then sighed and tipped her head back a little. "I should have said or done something back there. I don't know why I didn't and I can't explain why either, but I'm... you know, sorry."

Sam briefly looked down at her hands before a smirk broadened across her face. "Sorry for what, exactly?"

"Are you being serious right now?" Paulina asked, but the way Sam cocked her head to the side and lifted her brows told her that she was. She then exhaled sharply through her nose and raised her palm to her forehead. "I'm sorry for not stopping Tiffany from throwing your clothes in the shower and I'm sorry for letting Amber pour her water on you like that."

Sam puffed out her lower lip and nodded her head. "Okay."

"Okay?" Paulina crossed her arms and scoffed. "What, that's it?"

"Yeah, that's it." Sam rose to her feet and looked straight into Paulina's eyes, sending shivers down her spine. "I appreciate the apology." And with that, she was gone, departing through the side entrance of the cafeteria. Paulina stood there for several seconds, trying to piece together what just happened.

* * *

"Our topic of the day is kindness." Ms. Castillo's dark eyes swept over her classroom as she spoke. "Kindness is the quality of being warmhearted, considerate, and humane. What are some examples of kindness?"

Paulina watched as a few people raised their hands, some looking more enthusiastic than others to answer the woman's question. She ended up calling on the same young girl from one of the previous sessions. "How about holding the door open for someone?"

Ms. Castillo smiled at the girl and nodded her head. "Nice job, Hannah. Anyone else?" Another student raised his hand, so she nodded towards him.

"Feeding the homeless."

"Yes, that's another one. There are many acts of kindness out there, such as giving someone a compliment, handing out flowers, donating to charity, or even recycling. It's important to be kind to others because it makes them feel good, and that inspires them to want to do something kind for you or for others."

"Plus, it makes you feel good about yourself," Hannah pitched. Ms. Castillo's smile increased and she nodded once more.

"Correct, and kindness is free! I know you all like free things." The group shared a brief chuckle as their teacher calmly paced to her right. "Every single moment of your life, you'll have the choice to act with kindness. Everyone is fighting their own battles, so it's important to practice that quality because you don't know what the person beside you is going through right now."

Paulina couldn't help but chance a glance to her left, despite knowing that Sam was occupying the desk there. She looked more bored than anything, but she still seemed to be paying attention. She averted her gaze back onto Ms. Castillo, who was now standing in the center of the classroom.

"If you would all please take a look at the teal box sitting on top of my desk." She motioned towards it and smiled gently at the group before her. "This is our new appreciation box."

"What's it for?" one student asked.

"I want everyone to anonymously write an appreciation message for someone else during each session and stick it inside the box. Five minutes before we leave, I'll read a few out loud. Not today, though, because we have to move onto the next few activities."

"Oh, okay."

"Your assignment right now is to turn to your neighbor and tell them one good thing that happened to you today." Paulina stiffened as Ms. Castillo's eyes slid towards her, and for a second, it felt like she only picked that specific assignment because she happened to be sitting beside Sam that day. "I'll give everyone two minutes."

She thinned her lips and reluctantly twisted sideways to face Sam, who looked just about as uncomfortable as she did. "Uh, my favorite meal was served at lunch today." It was awkward addressing her with anything other than insults, but strangely, it made her feel good inside.

Sam glanced at her for a split second and then immediately looked away. "Oh, cool. Um, I passed my pop quiz in Physics."

"Nice." And then they quickly stopped acknowledging each other and allowed a heavy, uncomfortable silence to settle between them. The tension was almost palpable, with both girls refusing to glance at each other for the duration of the session. However, while Paulina looked uneasy on the outside, she could almost feel her cold heart warming up a bit.


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note: Lol, to my reviewers Kaylin and Matt, yes Danielle is a huge part of this story! Most of you realized that her writing style is similar to the one in this story.**

 **Good guess... I was waiting until the very end of the story to credit her, but since this story has been blowing up, I have to.**

 **Her fanfic username is iimdanielle. thank you Danielle for revising my content and giving me this story idea! Check her out she is the author of Mine. xx**

 **Thank you all for reviewing! Onto the chappie..**

* * *

 **Chapter Eight**

The corners of Paulina's lips rose ever so gently as she motioned towards Sam, who was standing beside her with her wrists locked behind her back. "One thing I like about Sam is how strong she is." Mr. Lancer and Principal Ishiyama flashed her a thumbs up from their places near the classroom door. "Mental wise."

"And one thing I like about Paulina is her confidence." Sam looked over at her and smiled as well, though it wasn't as wide as hers was. "I know I poked fun at it last week, but I mean it. Sometimes you go overboard, but it's great that you appreciate yourself."

To Paulina, it felt really peculiar to see Sam smiling at her instead of glaring at her as per usual, but it also brought her a strange new sense of comfort. She didn't know if she was smiling at her because of the compliment she gave her or because that was their last day of having to state what they liked about each other, but either way, it made her smile, too.

However, once she flicked her gaze in Star's direction, her smile instantly faded. The girl's face was contorted into a mask of what she thought was hatred. Her eyes were like twin beams of betrayal, which confused her to the point where she just decided to look away.

After Mr. Lancer's class ended, they both met up just a few feet away from his classroom. Well, more like Star lightly gripped her wrist and pulled her in the opposite direction. Once they were out of ear-shot of any teachers, Star swung her arms outward. "What was that?"

Paulina curled her eyebrows together, which caused her forehead to crease. "What was what?" Just then, Sam, Danny, and Tucker passed by, but Sam and Tucker were so engrossed in a conversation that they just bypassed her. Danny, however, noticed her and flashed her a tiny smile. Though it surprised her, she smiled back at him.

"That!" Star exclaimed. "Since when did you start associating yourself with those freaks? I can understand you smiling with Fenton, but with _Manson_?"

"Calm down, Star." Paulina exhaled and raised her hands defensively. "You're overreacting."

"I'm not overreacting. Buddying up with Manson will for sure get you booted from the A-listers, even if she's dating Fenton." Star took a step forward and jammed her forefinger into Paulina's face. "You're getting soft on us. Don't be so quick to trust Manson because she's nothing but a snake in sheep's clothing." And with that, she stalked away.

"Jeez. What the hell was that about?" Paulina murmured to herself. She waited until Star disappeared around the corner before moving towards her second period class. She truly didn't feel like dealing with her best friend's sudden spike in attitude that morning, so she brushed off the encounter for the moment.

At lunch, however, things took a turn for the worse.

Paulina, Star, Dash, Kwan, and Tiffany were all sitting at their usual lunch table in the center of the cafeteria. As the boys and Tiffany ate their lunch, Star and Paulina stared each other down. Paulina was mainly glaring at her because she started it, but part of the reason was because of what happened after first period.

After several minutes of angrily eyeballing each other, Tiffany picked up on the tension between the girls and narrowed her eyes. "Okay, what happened between you two?" she inquired. Star didn't respond, so Paulina decided to.

"Ask Star. She's the one acting like a baby." Star scoffed and turned her head away, but Paulina disregarded her and continued speaking. "Since when is it against the rules to smile at someone?"

Tiffany pursed her lips and rose an eyebrow before looking to Star, who exhaled sharply and pointed at Paulina. "She was kissing up to Manson during Mr. Lancer's class. She complimented her and they smiled at each other."

Paulina rolled her eyes. "Such a crime, right?"

"What?" Tiffany straightened her form and blinked a few times. "Why would you do that? You don't even like her."

"I don't really see what the big deal is. It's not like we're going to go skipping off into the sunset holding hands or something just because we were cordial to each other today. Besides, you guys already knew about the assignment Principal Ishiyama gave us both."

Star seemed to drop the matter, as she started to eat her once untouched meal. Tiffany, however, was relentless. "We don't associate ourselves with the unpopular. Period." She hunched forward in her seat and tapped her right forefinger against the surface of the table. "If you want to hang around with the unpopular and be all buddy buddy with them, then go be unpopular with them."

Paulina's brows furrowed. "Didn't I invite you into this group? Know your place."

"I'm just letting you know."

Dash belched before snorting and glancing at Tiffany. "You'd better cool it before Manson dog walks you. You know that girl is strong as hell."

" _That string bean_?" The sadistic girl scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Please." She then flattened her palms on top of the table and rose to her feet. "Only weaklings are afraid of her. She's not as tough as she's portraying herself to be, you know." Without uttering another word, she walked over to the entrance of the cafeteria and departed.

Paulina had a bad feeling in her gut and decided to follow her. Star, Kwan, and Dash remained in their seats, all of them either oblivious to what Tiffany was about to do or just too understand to find out. The first one made much more sense, so she chose not to inform them about what Tiffany was up to.

"Where are you going?" she asked once she caught up to her friend. She received no response, but the path Tiffany was marching down told her that she was heading outside to the patio, and she knew exactly who was sitting out there. "Tiff, no. Don't go that way. Don't do that."

But Tiffany simply ignored her and continued storming over to the door leading to the patio, where she proceeded to push it open and walk outside. All Paulina could do was follow her like a lost puppy and wait to see what exactly she was going to do.

Sure enough, Sam was sitting out there at a table with Danny and Tucker. Her lips were parted as she laughed at something inaudible to Paulina. No one else was around, as everyone normally ate lunch inside the cafeteria. Tiffany made a beeline for the trio and, after stopping at the end of the table, cleared her throat.

"Get up, Manson," she demanded. Everybody at the table looked over at her, perplexed as to what was going on. She eyed Sam's bottle of water that was sitting beside her food and then knocked it off of the table. "You heard me. I said get up."

"Get up for what?" Sam was surprisingly nonchalant this time, not flinching or even raising an eyebrow at the aggressive girl before her. Paulina stood back and watched them again, but not because she was afraid to intervene; she wanted to see how far Tiffany was going to go.

"I'm tired of you walking around here like you're tough just because you fought Paulina. You fought somebody weaker than you." Tiffany then drew her hand backwards and swung it out sideways, knocking Sam's food onto the ground. "Fight me. Fight someone on your own level of strength."

Danny quickly got up from the table and moved in front of Sam, acting as a barrier between her and Tiffany. "She's not fighting anyone. Why don't you guys just leave her alone?"

"This doesn't concern you, Fenton."

"No, Danny, it's okay." Sam gently towed him out of her way as she, too, stood from the table. Once she was up, she crossed her arms cocked her head to the side. "Why can't we just talk it out like two civil people? Fighting doesn't really accomplish anything. You're still not going to like me after we fight."

"So now you want to talk it out? Why didn't you want to talk it out with Paulina? Oh, because you're weak." Tiffany inched closer to her, appearing to grow in height with each step she took. Sam remained unbothered, still not flinching or moving backwards. "You're a punk. You'd step up to her but not to me."

"I only fought her because she put her hands on me first. I don't have a problem with you. Everything you feel is one-sided because I don't care about you."

What unfolded next was wild for Paulina to witness. Tiffany caught Sam off guard by roughly pawing her in her face. She then followed up with a punch, but Sam was swift and retaliated with multiple sharp blows to the girl's head and face as well.

Paulina curled her arms around Tiffany's waist and started to pull her away, but Tiffany jerked her right leg back and kicked her in her shin, which made her accidentally loosen her grip on her. As a result, she toppled to the floor, giving Sam more of an advantage over her. Paulina didn't really want to keep watching her friend go at it with Sam and lose, so she looked to Danny and Tucker for help.

What she didn't know was that they were both already working on seperating the girls. Danny, being the strongest of the two, grabbed Sam's wrists while Tucker grasped her hips. As they tried to haul her away, Paulina reached into the mix and pried Tiffany's fingers from Sam's hair. Eventually, all three of them were successful in breaking up the fight.

Paulina didn't even attempt to help up Tiffany, who was still on the ground as a result of the fight. The girl picked herself up and wiped at the small amount of blood that trickled from her right nostril, grumbling derogatory things about Sam under her breath. "You wait until other people hit you first because you're a follower. You're still a punk to me."

Paulina moved out of the way and just watched the scene escalate, too stunned to properly react. Danny and Tucker stopped restraining Sam and let her go, but Danny still stood in front of her with his arms spread outward to create some distance between her and Tiffany.

"It's always Manson this, Manson that." Sam tried to bypass him and get closer to Tiffany's face so that she would take her argument much more seriously, but he wasn't having that and kept moving in front of her. "I don't even talk to you guys, yet you still find a way to harass me."

Upon hearing that, Paulina became offended and scoffed. "Who's you guys?"

"You and her!" Sam brought her palms to her chest and raised her voice a level. "No matter what I'm doing, whether it's walking down the hallway or just hanging by myself, you two always attack _me_."

"I haven't physically attacked you since we fought!" Paulina took a few steps forward, but Danny was still standing between them, so she didn't walk up too close. "That Nasty Burger incident doesn't even count. All I've ever done recently was be verbal with you, and barely even that."

"Each time one of your friends approach me, it has something to do with you, yet you sit there and try to play me by pretending you had nothing to do with it. It's like you pick and choose the days where you want to be cordial with me."

"I don't have to pretend to do anything."

"Sam's actually right," Tucker chimed in. Paulina glared at him, and while he gulped, he still stood his ground. "Every time Tiffany comes up to her, you're always involved somehow, so it's either her with the problem or you with the problem."

Paulina scowled at him, but Tiffany was the one who retorted. "Who asked you, geek? This doesn't involve you, but Manson?" Despite the fact that she just got rocked pretty badly by Sam, she started to pull her hair up into a bun. "I want round two."

"Not going to happen." Danny nodded his head towards the door leading back into the school and lowered his eyebrows. "Both of you just beat it, please."

Tiffany narrowed her eyes and huffed. "Fine." As she turned over her shoulder, however, she quickly craned her head in Sam's direction and spit on her. Sam then reached over Danny's shoulder and capped Tiffany one good time in her face before she was forced back by both he and Tucker.

Paulina finally had enough and grabbed Tiffany by her wrist, roughly towing her back into the school. She had a whole tantrum on the way over to the building, but once they stepped inside, she yanked her wrist away. "Don't touch me! Who's side are you even on?"

"I'm on my side, but that was disgusting. I know fighting isn't classy, but neither is spitting. You're blowing up this situation and escalating it more than it needs to be and I'm sick of it."

Ire clouded Tiffany's facial features and her voice shook with rage. "You're actually defending her?" Her lips curled into a sneer and she pointed at her nose, which wasn't bleeding as much as she thought it was. "After she did this to me, you're seriously jumping to her defense?"

Paulina didn't recognize the hostile girl standing before her. Sure, she wasn't nice in general, but the only person she saw sulking in front of her at that moment was a monster. She couldn't help but wonder if that was the same person she looked like to Sam.

"Wrong is wrong, Tiff. She and I have our own personal reasons to dislike each other, but you don't have a legit reason to not like her, and if you do, I promise it's not worth what you just did out there." Paulina stared into Tiffany's eyes with a stern expression plastered on her face. "You need to quit bullying people. I hate to say this, but she beat your ass and it wouldn't have happened if you just minded your business."

Tiffany's glare seemed to burn a hole into her face. "It's either her or me. Choose wisely." Paulina parted her lips to answer, but then she decided not to. She realized at that moment that Tiffany was manipulative, controlling, bossy, and everything that Sam called her the other day in the hall. If that's the monster she was seen as, she didn't want to be like that anymore.

"You're out of the A-listers. Consider yourself booted." She pulled her gaze from Tiffany and started to walk away, not even looking back at the distraught expression she was certain the girl was now wearing on her face.

"Y-You can't kick me if I quit!" she heard her cry out, but she merely ignored her and kept it moving, which only seemed to upset her further. "Paulina, don't you dare walk away from me!"

But she was already gone.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine**

Sam disengaged herself from reality for a few minutes in order to simmer down and reflect on what just transpired. She felt a rush of different emotions at that moment, such as exasperation, humiliation, and regret.

She truthfully didn't regret her fight with Tiffany because she felt like she had no choice but to fight the girl back. Instead, she regretted fighting Paulina because ever since that day, school has been hell for her. It always seemed like someone was picking on her or trying to start a fight with her almost everyday.

She was sitting on the ground outside, her back slightly hunched forward with her knees pulled up to her chest. Her arms were folded on top and her forehead was pressed against her right wrist. She wanted lunch to end so she could just rush to her next period, where she didn't know anyone, and have some alone time. Not that she minded Danny and Tucker's presence; she only needed some time to regain her composure.

"You should go and talk to Principal Ishiyama about Paulina and her friends," Tucker suggested. She pretended she didn't hear him and kept her head low, though he continued speaking. "Especially because Tiffany just fought you. You won that fight, so there's no way she's going to lay off of you now."

She raised her head up in time to catch Danny mouthing to Tucker, telling him to leave her alone. He gave a respectful nod and turned away, walking back over to their lunch table. The back patio door leading into the school opened once again, and to everyone's great irritation, Paulina stepped outside and started to approach them.

"Before anyone says anything, I'm not looking for trouble." She stopped just before Sam and knelt down so that they were at the same level. Sam propped her chin on top of her arm and glared at her, though it wasn't as strong as she intended it to be.

"I want to be alone." Her voice shook a bit, as she was still seething about what happened a few minutes ago. Paulina didn't seem to care too much about what she wanted and casually swept her hair behind her shoulders.

"Look, I'm done fighting you and I'm done arguing with you. I have so much more important shit to worry about." Sam nodded in understanding, so Paulina exhaled softly before finishing. "I apologize for what happened out here with Tiffany, but I can assure you that it won't happen again."

Sam's eyebrows moved together and she turned her head to the side, resting her right cheek on her wrist so that she didn't have to look at Paulina anymore. The cheerleader's assurance meant nothing to her because she didn't trust her at all. That was something that had to be earned, and her actions seemed to speak louder than her words.

"Can you not ignore me? I'm trying to talk to you," Paulina told her. She reverted her head to its original position and raised a shoulder in a half-shrug. The girl before her rolled her eyes and drew a breath. "Being cordial with each other doesn't really seem to be working out for either of us. I think the drama would die down if we didn't speak to each other."

Sam raised up her eyebrows. "Sounds like an amazing idea." She looked to Danny almost distressfully, but all he did was raise his shoulders and glance over at Tucker, who had a similar reaction. Luckily for her, Paulina got up and started to walk back over to the building.

After she was gone, Danny shuffled towards Sam and hunched over, extending his hand out to her. She eyed him for a few seconds before grabbing onto his hand and allowing him to pull her to her feet. "You know I don't like seeing you upset, Sam. Please try to calm down before the bell rings."

"I would love to, but unfortunately, that's easier said than done." She pulled her hand away from his and moved it to her forehead, pushing her hair out of her face. "Junior year is stressful enough already. The last thing I need is catty drama with two A-listers who won't leave me alone. I'm sick of having to fight them."

"Well, Paulina said she was done fighting you. Let's hope she stays true to her word. As for Tiffany, we'll just have to see about her." Danny then leaned over to retrieve her backpack, which was carelessly kicked to the side during her fight. "The bell's about to ring. Let's clean up out here and then head to class."

* * *

Sam ended up skipping the character education club after school. Her fight with Tiffany really dampened her mood for the day, so she decided to just hang with Danny and Tucker at Danny's house. Nobody seemed to be aware of the fight that broke out on the patio, which meant that Tiffany must've kept her mouth shut about it.

She was much more calm than she was earlier, but the situation still bothered her. She was hoping that Paulina would stay true to her word and keep Tiffany off her back, as the girl had no genuine reason to hate her to the point where she felt like she needed to attack her.

She saw nothing but red after Tiffany socked her in her face. The next thing she knew, Danny and Tucker were hauling her away from the scene while Tiffany sat there with her nose slightly bleeding. She knew that it wasn't about the size of the person in the fight, but rather the size of the fight in the person.

That didn't mean she wanted to fight, though. She knew her own strength, which is why she only regretted fighting Paulina. She always knew that she could easily beat the girl in a fight, so that's why she never stepped up to her, but when she was provoked on an already bad day, she lost her cool.

Tiffany, however, got exactly what was coming to her. She chose the wrong person to push around and, when it came down to prove how tough she really was, she failed. Something about Sam intimidated her enough to make her feel like she needed to challenge someone who she thought was weaker than her in order to prove that she was stronger.

It was just weird.

Tucker took sympathy upon her and bought her favorite dark licorice, black frosting ice cream with gummy bats sprinkled on top. As she gratefully accepted the treat, Danny ordered a pizza for both he and Tucker before popping in an action-packed movie that they all mutually enjoyed watching.

They watched different movies back-to-back until about seven-thirty, when Sam and Tucker decided to head home. Usually Jazz would drive them both home after they were finished hanging with Danny for the day, but because she was away at college, they were reduced to walking. Danny usually accompanied them, and if his ghost sense went off during that, they'd deal with the situation together.

Fortunately, that didn't happen this time. Sam was the first one they walked home, so as soon as she entered her house, she made a beeline for her room. Her mother and father asked her how her day went, to which she ignored because she knew they were just going to harass her for details about the club. Her evening was already much better than her afternoon was, but if she told them she ditched for the day, they were definitely going to scold her and ruin it.

She was somewhat reluctant to go to school the following day, but to her surprise, it almost seemed like things were back to normal.

Almost.

After gym class ended for the day, she exited the locker room and started towards the cafeteria for lunch. She, Danny, and Tucker decided to eat inside just in case Tiffany tried to storm out onto the patio for revenge. To her surprise, Tiffany brushed right past her in the hall. At first, she thought maybe the girl just didn't see her, but the powerful glare she cast her definitely told her otherwise.

Once in the cafeteria, she fished into her pocket to grab her phone in order to text Tucker that she was waiting for him and Danny, but as she did that, she discovered that her student ID wasn't where it was supposed to be. She was positive that she had stuck it into that specific pocket, so when she didn't feel it there, she decided to backpedal her way over to the locker room.

Sure enough, shortly after arriving, she saw her ID lying on the floor a few inches away from her gym locker. She snatched it up and stared down at it to confirm that it was hers before walking over to the exit of the locker room. She didn't get very far, though, as the faintest sound of someone sniffling captured her attention.

She listened closely for a few seconds, but when she was met with nothing but utter silence, she was about to pass it off as her mind playing tricks on her until she heard it again, this time louder. "What the heck?" She spun over her shoulder and started to walk through the locker room, glancing down each area as she passed by. Near the last row of lockers, however, she spotted Paulina.

She was seated on the bench with her back hunched over and half of her face was buried in her hands. Something about seeing the most popular girl in school sitting in the locker room crying by herself made Sam a bit uncomfortable, and while her heart told her to just silently make a break for it, she followed her head, which told her to say something.

"Uh, Paulina, you good?" It was a really stupid question to ask, but she truly didn't know what to say. She was never really good at comforting people, especially people she wasn't close to.

Paulina weakly nodded and her voice rose through her hands. "Yeah, I'm fine." Sam pretty much gave up after that and was about to turn around, preparing to exit, but then Paulina raised her head to reveal the tear tracks glittering her cheeks and her smudged mascara. "Hold onto Danny because boys suck, especially ex-boyfriends who use you for temporary pleasure," she advised.

Sam felt her muscles stiffen when she realized what type of conversation she was being roped into. She couldn't even empathize with her on that topic because she was never in a situation like that. She was just about to ask for more information when she heard Paulina take a deep breath.

"This guy was my first love. He was the one I gave my virginity to. We met each other's parents, texted and called each other everyday, and he always bought me flowers. I gave that boy my heart." She paused to swipe underneath her nose with the sleeve of her shirt before sniffing. "Long story short, he put our relationship on hold. I've been waiting for us to get back together for months, but I just found out that he has another girlfriend now."

"Damn. That's tough." Sam's response was instant, as she said the first thing that popped into her head. Sure, there were things that happened to her that broke her heart, but none of them pertained to a relationship.

"The girl he chose over me isn't even pretty," Paulina continued. "She has nothing on me. I'm prettier than her, I'm a cheerleader, and I have a nicer body. I can give him way more than she can."

Sam's eyebrows dipped in the center. "That's not really necessary." When Paulina frowned at her, she sighed heavily and lowered herself down onto the bench. "Believe it or not, Paulina, not everyone cares about looks. Your physical appearance shouldn't be the only attractive thing about you."

"Then what else should?"

"Well, I'd say personality. Most people would prefer to have a beautiful conversation over a beautiful face to look at." Sam crossed her right leg over her left and flattened her palms on either side of her against the bench. "Beauty starts from within. Maybe the girl's personality is what attracted him to her. Instead of focusing on her flaws, work on building your strengths."

In a way, she was speaking about herself. Many people wondered why Danny liked her over Paulina without getting to know her for who she really was, and Paulina was a perfect example of that.

"Wow, I've never thought of it that way." She watched as the heartbroken cheerleader wiped at her tears with her wrist and wilted her shoulders. "Then that means I can't get him back with my looks. How can I make him see that I have a beautiful personality so that he'll love me?"

"Well..." Sam lifted her hand to the back of her neck and rubbed it. "You can't. You can't make someone love you and you shouldn't have to. It should be natural."

"What am I supposed to do then?"

"Ghost him. Cut off all means of communication you have with him and focus on yourself for a little while." She wasn't sure if Paulina was genuinely accepting her advice or not, but she decided to continue anyway. "That will hurt you at first, yes, but I promise you'll feel much better once time heals the pain and turns it into a distant memory."

Paulina's eyes glazed over as she thoughtfully stared at the floor of the locker room. After several minutes of silence, Sam took that as a sign that she wanted to be alone, so she slowly rose to her feet and left the locker room.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

Next Tuesday rolled around before Paulina knew it and that day ended up being a crazy one for her.

It all went down during Mr. Lancer's first period class. Everyone was working independently on their warm-up assignment, but that didn't stop them from discussing their answers quietly to whoever was sitting adjacent to them. Luckily for Paulina, she and Star patched things up a few days prior, so she was able to read and copy what she had written down.

About five minutes into the assignment, Mr. Lancer stood up from the swivel chair behind his desk and slowly walked towards the front board. "All right, pencils down. Pass your warm-ups down and towards the center person in the first row."

Paulina neatly tore her warm-up sheet from her spiral notebook and handed it to Dash, who was occupying the desk in front of her. He took it from her and she watched as he passed it down the row. As she looked on, she cast an absent glance to her right, where she saw Danny passing up the worksheets he had collected.

Sam had her head down on her desk, which was definitely uncharacteristic for her. Danny was usually the main one who fell asleep during class or who always had his head down. Next was Tucker, though it was much more rare, but it was barely ever Sam.

Paulina didn't think she was asleep because immediately after Danny handed the papers to the person in front of him, he turned around and leaned towards her. He seemed to be whispering to her and she was for sure saying something back. Whatever it was, Paulina shrugged it off and shifted her attention back to Mr. Lancer as he cleared his throat.

"Today, you all will be working with one other person to complete a worksheet," he informed his students. "Then, you'll both come up before the class to share your answers." Paulina and Star glanced at each other and grinned, but then frowned immediately once he added, "When I call your name, come up and draw a name from the box."

Star rolled her eyes and groaned. "Why don't we ever get to pick our own partner?" Paulina grunted in agreement and listened as Mr. Lancer called on Dash, who smirked and started walking towards the box. He stuck his hand inside after Mr. Lancer shook it and pulled out a tiny slip of white paper.

"I got Fentonio." He looked up at Danny and his smirk increased into a grin. "Sweet." Danny didn't look too pleased, but he still got up and pushed his desk closer to Dash's. Paulina's eyes followed Dash as he moved back to his seat, but Mr. Lancer reverted her attention to him once he called on Star.

Star quickly rose from her seat and made a beeline for the box in his hand. She closed her eyes and reached inside, pulling out a slip of paper and opening her eyes to read it. When her face sank and her expression shifted to one of disgust, Paulina's brows flattened as she wondered what name the girl got.

"Foley." Star dropped the slip of paper onto Mr. Lancer's desk and reluctantly crossed the room over to Tucker, who was wearing a toothy grin that nearly took up his entire face. Paulina narrowed her eyes and was just about to ask him why he was smiling when Mr. Lancer called her name.

She got up from her seat and went straight for the box just like Dash and Star did. She turned her head to the left and reached into it with her right hand, feeling around for a paper to grab. She chose one somewhere in the center and pulled it out before looking at it.

"Great." Sighing almost dejectedly, she looked upward at nothing in particular and scoffed. "Why does this keep happening to me?" Mr. Lancer's eyebrows skyrocketed, but she didn't say anything else as she placed her paper on his desk and walked back over to her own.

She didn't sit; instead, she grabbed her backpack and pushed her desk closer to Sam's until the sides touched one other. The movement of their desks connecting made Sam aware that someone was beside her, so she slightly raised her head and looked over at Paulina.

"Uh, we're partnered together for this assignment," Paulina told her meekly. She said nothing in response, but she nodded her head and cleared off her desk. Paulina sat in her seat and repositioned her notebook as she closely studied the Goth beside her.

Her skin was paler than usual, her eyelids were droopy, and she overall looked exhausted. Paulina opened her mouth to ask what was up, but then she decided against it and clamped her lips together. Mr. Lancer came by to pass out the group worksheets, and as soon as Paulina received hers, she scanned her eyes over it.

The worksheet was simple, as it was only divided into two sections. One section required them to match up the vocabulary words to the proper definition and the other one required them to use those same vocabulary words in a sentence.

She was only going to do the first section and leave the second one to Sam because she didn't feel like doing the most time-consuming part, but then she decided to just do the second section in order to cut the girl some slack because she looked like hell.

"I'll tackle the second section." She peered down at the worksheet and picked up her pencil. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sam slowly put her head back down on the desk. Paulina was certain that she was ill, but she was also certain that she wouldn't admit to it, so she simply chose to mind her own business.

She was on the fifth sentence going onto the sixth one when Sam took the paper from her. "I'll do the rest." She could've protested, but Sam seemed adamant on doing the rest of the work, so she just let her do it. While that happened, she figured she'd speak to Star, who was somewhere at a desk behind her.

The two of them conversed for about fifteen minutes, talking about cheerleading and gossip until Mr. Lancer called for everyone's attention. "Time's up. It's time to present the second section of your worksheets." Paulina turned around in her chair and spread her arms out on the desk. "Mr. Fenton, Mr. Baxter, take the wheel."

Danny and Dash got up from their seats and started towards the front of the class. Dash, who was holding onto the worksheet, held it up a bit and cleared his throat. "The word we chose for our first sentence was laceration. Kyle was covered in many lacerations after falling off of his bike."

Mr. Lancer smiled and marked something down on his clipboard. Danny took the paper from Dash and read the next sentence. "Dash could have an A in English, but because he's too complacent, he doesn't."

Dash scratched his head and snatched the paper from him. He squinted at the words, brows furrowed, before his expression shifted to a glare. "Hey! That sentence isn't on here."

A few students in the classroom laughed as Mr. Lancer slapped his forehead with his right hand and mumbled something underneath his breath. Paulina smirked and leaned back in her seat, finding the scene before her amusing. Unfortunately, they were finished reading all ten sentences in less than four minutes, so the moment of entertainment was cut short.

Mr. Lancer called for Paulina and Sam to come up next, so Paulina grabbed the worksheet from the desk and skipped to the front of the classroom. Sam trudged her way up there, making them both look even more like complete opposites. Paulina leveled the paper in front of her and began to read.

"The first word we picked was distraught. The young woman was very distraught after the death of her husband." She clicked her tongue and was about to read the second sentence, but then she leaned over and held the paper before Sam to let her take a crack at it. "You can read the second one."

But she didn't read the second one. Paulina waited for her to start reading, but she didn't say anything. She glanced over at her and saw that she was squinting and blinking several times. Almost nervously and sounding concerned, Paulina asked, "Did you hear me?"

"Yeah, I..." Sam's words died in her mouth as her expression went blank. Her eyes then rolled shut and she crumpled towards the floor, but Paulina dropped her worksheet and hastily curled her arms around Sam to catch her before she hit the floor.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven**

"Mr. Baxter, fetch the nurse!" Paulina heard Mr. Lancer cry out. She lowered herself to the floor and gingerly positioned Sam on her back before moving away. Several students hurried from their seats and started to crowd around them until the man ordered, " _In Search of Lost Time_. Return to your seats and give her some space, now!"

Almost everyone obeyed, but Danny wasn't one of those people. Paulina watched as he dropped to Sam's side and checked for a pulse. After a sigh of relief, he gently shook her shoulder and called out to her. "Sam? Sam."

"Miss Manson, can you hear me?" Mr. Lancer's voice was firm, but anyone in that room could detect the amount of compassion and concern within it. Fortunately, she stirred right after that and her lashes swept upward as she cracked open her eyelids. She blinked several times to adjust her vision before staring at everyone who was towering over her.

"Nice catch, Paulina," Star remarked, though it sounded almost absent because she was focused on the scene unfolding before her. Paulina gave a dismissive nod before looking down at Danny, who had rolled up his hoodie and propped Sam's legs on top of it while Mr. Lancer crouched down beside her.

"How do you feel?" She ignored his question, or just didn't hear it, and attempted to sit up, but Danny gently pushed on her shoulder to get her to lie back down. "It's best that you remain lying down until the nurse comes in," Mr. Lancer continued. "Do you feel dizzy, disoriented, nauseous, or all of the above?"

"No, but I feel suffocated." Sam's voice sounded hoarse, so she cleared her throat and tried again. "I feel fine. Really."

"You're obviously not fine if you just fainted." Paulina didn't recognize the voice of the person who said that and she didn't bother turning around to see who it was either. "Maybe you didn't eat breakfast today or maybe you're overworked."

Nobody responded to her, but some shrugged and others hummed. The school's nurse, along with Dash, came bustling into the room just then and she made a beeline towards Sam. "Oh, she's awake. That's good." She knelt down beside her and asked, "Are you feeling lightheaded, nauseous—"

"I'm fine." Sam exhaled softly and leaned forward, positioning herself upright so that she was now sitting up. Paulina knew the girl was most likely embarrassed because she had several pairs of eyeballs trained on her. Most of their classmates were only standing there because they wanted to be nosy, not because they were genuinely concerned about her.

The nurse kept pressing her with questions; not because she wanted to come off as overbearing or annoying, but because she was simply doing her job. "Are you okay to stand? Did you hit your head?"

"Nah, she didn't. Paulina caught her before she hit the ground," Dash answered. Paulina stiffened once Sam's now wide eyes flicked towards her. She awkwardly raised her shoulders and looked over at the nurse, who nodded her head and smiled tenderly.

"Okay, dear, let's get you to the clinic." The woman lightly gripped Sam's upper arm and placed her other hand on her back before slowly helping her to her feet with the minor assistance of Danny. Mr. Lancer stood up as well and started ordering everyone to return to their seats. Once the nurse and Sam were gone, class resumed.

For the rest of the period, Paulina was a little distracted. Sam fainting and her catching her kept replaying in her head. She felt like she should've said something when she saw how ill the girl was looking, but then again, she thought it was a little odd how no one else seemed to notice anything off about her.

Danny probably did, though. She assumed that he was whispering to Sam about going to the nurse, which she probably just refused. The more she thought back to it, the more that situation seemed less hypothetical and more like what actually happened.

She didn't see Sam during lunch, but she saw Danny and Tucker. They were sitting inside the cafeteria this time, eating and talking to each other like everyone else was doing. After mentally debating with herself, she hesitantly approached them.

"So, where is she?" Both boys stopped what they were doing and looked over at her. They then glanced at each other, probably having a silent conversation with facial expressions before either of them chose to speak. "Is she like, okay?"

"She got sent home early." Danny cast a glance to his right with a slow raise of his shoulders. "She's okay. She just needs to take it easy. All that fighting and stressing isn't exactly good for a person's well-being."

She didn't know if he was just saying that to make her feel guilty or if he was being truthful at first, but she eventually went with neither. She was certain that he was lying about what really happened because he refused to look her in the eyes while he was speaking, which was something he never had a problem with doing before.

After school, during cheerleading practice, she was in the middle of doing a butterfly stretch after warming up when her phone started buzzing beside her. She paused and grabbed it, glancing at the screen to see who was calling her.

Of course it would be her ex boyfriend.

Normally, she would've jumped to answer the phone call, but her entire conversation in the locker room with Sam popped into her head. Instead of answering, she stared down at the phone and waited until it stopped ringing before exhaling and continuing her stretch.

While she did that, Tiffany stomped over to her and stood above her with her hands on her hips. Paulina peered up at her and scrunched her face, resisting the urge to snap at her and tell her to beat it. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"Yeah." Tiffany glanced away and took a deep breath. "I want to be back in the A-listers again."

Paulina looked amused as she held back a smirk. "That's not happening, Tiff."

"And why not?"

She moved into a crisscross position and eyed her nails, noting the fact that it was almost time for a fill-in. As entertaining as it was to see Tiffany crawling back, she didn't care for it much. "I want peace and you want war. I'm sick of you fighting my battles and escalating them, which is all you're going to do if I allow you back in."

"That's a damn lie," Tiffany growled. Paulina remained unflinching, even rolling her eyes and looking in another direction. "I wasn't fighting any of your battles. I was defending you and you wanted to get all pissy about it and boot me from the club."

"Defending me from what? Manson wasn't doing anything wrong that day. You started a fight with her, spit on her, and then came yelling at me for saying you were in the wrong." Paulina then decided to re-tie her shoe since she was already sitting down. "Then you told me to choose between you and her. I'm not saying I choose her, but I don't choose you, so what's the point of you being in the group?"

"Because, sweetheart, you don't own that group. Everyone contributed to it, so it's not fair that only you get to call the shots."

"Actually, _sweetheart_ , Dash and I call the shots because we were the main ones to initiate the group." After tying her shoe, she rose to her feet and walked forward, jamming her finger into Tiffany's face. "You don't have the right to come here and tell me what's fair and what's not. I brought you into the group and I took you out. Plain and simple."

"You fought Manson, so I don't know why you're making a big deal about me fighting her." Tiffany crossed her arms and leaned back. "You've constantly insulted her and even initiated a fight of your own for no reason, yet I'm a bully for it?"

Paulina lowered her hand and casually shrugged. In a way, the girl had a point, but she didn't care about that. "I fought her because there was so much tension between us already. We didn't like each other and that fight was pretty mutual. You, however, fought her for dominance and superiority. You called her out for fighting someone who didn't want to fight, but she didn't want to fight you and you still fought her."

"Okay, but that's between her and I. That has nothing to do with you. You were just waiting for a reason to kick me out." Tiffany swung her arm out and chuckled dryly. "You can try as hard as you want to be this fake changed person, but you're not fooling anyone. You're still the same evil, conniving little diva you've always been."

Paulina nodded her head slowly and her lower lip protruded outward. "Sure, but this evil, conniving little diva is also the captain of our cheerleading team. Want to continue this conversation, or do you want to get out of my face and go finish stretching before I get really upset and make you do some wall sits?"

Tiffany's leer lingered on her for a few more seconds before she tore her gaze away and immediately stormed off. Paulina bowed her head and sighed before kneeling down and picking up her phone.

"Tiffany's wrong," she murmured to herself. "I can definitely change."

* * *

 **A/N: More of a filler, but sorry for the delay. Since my story was shouted out by Danielle, I want to return the favor. Feel free to check out her story 'Behind Closed Doors' or 'Mine' if you like thriller or any Danny Phantom stories. Her user is iimdanielle.**


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